


Titles

by zarabithia



Category: Captain America (2011), Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Community: avengers100, Gen, Present Tense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-20
Updated: 2012-04-20
Packaged: 2017-11-04 00:20:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/387573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve's had a lot of titles. Some he likes more than others. Written for the <a href="http://avengers100.livejournal.com/">avengers100</a> prompt "beginnings."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Titles

They call him "The First Avenger."

Steve's seen the magazine covers, the newspaper headlines, the television comedians and the blog comments. They all call him that, sometimes jokingly, sometimes in an attempt to rally public support for this new superhero team. 

He knows they mean well, but he hates the title. 

Because in the beginning, Steve was Bucky's best friend and Howard's champion. He was the Howling Commandos' teammate. He was Colonel Phillips' soldier. He was Peggy's - 

Well, he could have been a lot of things to Peggy. 

Here in the future, in the now that is 70 years away from what feels like yesterday, he isn't any of those things anymore. 

It isn't to say that he doesn't love the Avengers too; it's so easy to care for these new teammates that Steve can feel himself growing more and more fond of them with every sarcastic Barton retort, every smart Stark comeback, every shy Banner grin, every dry Natasha comment and every triumphant Thor shout. 

It's so easy that it feels like a betrayal, sometimes. Steve tells himself that it isn't - that Bucky, Peggy, Howard, the Commandos, they'd all want him to move on. 

And he is. 

But it isn't the Avengers that that have him staring up at the ceiling, unable to sleep because his mind is too full of memories. Although most are unpleasant memories, many are just as sweet, if not more so, than the memories Steve is making now.

He won't trade _any_ of those memories, and he'll never forget how proud he'd been to be part of the team he's left behind. 

Steve just wishes that the people in the 21st century realized that, too. Because he's an Avenger now, but he wasn't an Avenger _then_ and neither were the people that mattered most.


End file.
